April 17, 2008

Time Goes Back

I feel like I’m living in the past.Maybe it’s because I’m putting up another post that would have been more appropriate 2 months ago when I actually made this dish.Hearty risotto and ribs are great when it’s cold outside, (like in February) and you want something to fill you up and keep you warm.It’s not generally what you crave when the weather is balmy and patios are all the rage again, (I wish I had a patio...).I suppose, however, that you could do these ribs on the bbq instead of in the oven and they’d be pretty nice for an outdoor dinner.The risotto might need to be replaced with potato salad though.

But I digress, when I read a claim of ribs in under an hour over at The Kitchen Sink, I was immediately intrigued.They looked absolutely amazing but could you really make ribs in under an hour?The answer is yes.These ribs were pretty good.They weren’t fall off the bone tender like would be achieved by cooking them low and slow for hours on end, but if you don’t have all day to make ribs, these are a very good substitute and will definitely satisfy a rib craving.

As for the risotto, I’ve posted twice before about wild mushroom risottos, (here and here) and have made many other risottos that I haven’t posted about, usually because I don’t follow a recipe when making it.Once you have the basic technique for making risotto the flavour possibilities are endless.You can pretty much turn anything into a risotto.If only everything were so easy.

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Line a 17- by 12- by 1-inch baking pan with foil.Purée ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and oil in a blender, then transfer to a bowl and whisk in hoisin sauce and honey. Reserve 1/2 cup sauce and coat ribs with remainder.Arrange ribs, meaty sides down, in pan and bake, turning and basting once with some of reserved sauce halfway through baking, until cooked through, about 40 minutes.Turn on broiler. Brush ribs, meaty sides up, with remaining sauce. Broil 4 to 5 inches from heat until edges are lightly charred, 4 to 8 minutes.

33 comments:

Wait-- aren't ribs best not when it's cold, but when the sun is high? :) The answer is NO! Ribs are great anytime!! (uh, of course I am a 26y/o guy who wants his meat.) I could sure use some of your Chinese-style ribs! I think a baked potato would be nice to go with them, or maybe fried rice :)

Oh, I agree that if you have the time to slow roast the ribs then they're the best. When I used to cater parties (back in the day) we slow roasted at like 200 degrees for several hours and then took them to the party and threw them on the grill for a short time to finish them off. They were awesome that way!

I think these ribs sound great, with honey and hoisin. To me, ribs don't have a time of year -- I can eat them any time. Whenever I cook something on the bone that I want to grill, I do some pre-cooking in the oven, then throw them on the grill for a few minutes to char the outside.

I'm also quite glad to see another food blogger has such a backlog of posts. I have a cache of winter dishes I made that I hadn't written up yet and I know how weather appropriate they'll be now that we're almost into summer, lol.

Don't feel bad about not having a patio. I have a deck but I can't enjoy it because as soon as I go outside I get attacked by bugs. I don't think I sat outside once last summer. And I hate putting on bug spray. I need a screen house!